Sunday, October 07, 2012

Why Some Countries are corrupt

StrategyPage has a dicsussion on the Shiite/Sunni divide in Iraq, but has this observation on corruption that explains why third world politicians tend to steal everything in sight:

The problem in Iraq is that the forces of darkness are more pervasive and persistent than the forces of light. This accounts for a continued reliance on family and tribe for essential services (security, justice and survival in general). Thus government officials are expected to steal all they can and share it with family and tribe, as these are the only people you can rely on in the end. In short there is no "civic spirit" (or "civil society") that Westerners take for granted.

------------------------------Rubin points out that supporting the clan first is one reason for the Middle East's problems:

The key element for this article is this: when solidarity along group
lines takes priority and the line is that all of “us” must unite against
the “other” no matter what truth, logic, or justice dictates, then that
means serious trouble.

These dynastic families are known to have spawned elitist 500 public
officials in high government levels, including presidents and vice
presidents, senators and congressmen, and in local governments. As shown
by a recent survey by the Philippine Center for Investigative
Journalism, about two-thirds of members of both the Senate and the House
of Representatives come from political dynasties. And it said that “the
members of political families will tend to legislative in favor of
their own interests to the detriment of the majority.

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So we never have such problems in America, do we... except for the Romney, Clinton, Bush and Kennedy clans...